School Ratings Come and School Ratings Go!

So, I got a surprise when I woke up the other day and saw that George C Marshall High School overnight had turned into an average school for the area (their GreatSchools rating had dropped from a stellar 9 to an average 7.) At first I wasn’t sure what happened – did they fire a bunch of teachers and thereby changing the student to teacher ratio? Did the construction result in all the good students leaving? Did they cancel their IB program? Did the Marshall Statesmen loose all their games?

Nope. Wasn’t anything like that. It would seem that all that happened was that the 2012-2013 standardized test scores were loaded into GreatSchools.org and all the ratings recalculated using those. This resulted in some schools previously rated 10 and 9 dropping 2 or 3 points. A few increased as well.Here are the old and new scores for some schools in the area.

There is much more to a school than standardized test scores and parents should consider all those factors (in Washington DC for example, the GreatSchools.org scores is supposedly determined based on test scores, student growth and, if high school, college readiness.)

Will we see buying patterns change based on these score changes? Possibly. We as agents don’t recommend specific schools and tell parents that the right school varies based on the child. With few other metrics to initially gauge a school apart from just general reputation (and agents often unable to recommend a specific schools,) GreatSchools.org and similar sites play a large role in forming the perception of parents.

This article was written by Are Andresen of Soldsense Realty LLC. Soldsense is a real estate firm licensed in Virginia and has an office in Tysons Corner/Vienna, VA. Buying and selling can be difficult – we are experienced and can help you. Please contact us to learn how.

This article was written by Are Andresen of Soldsense Realty LLC. Soldsense is a real estate firm licensed in Virginia and has an office in Tysons Corner/Vienna, VA. Buying and selling can be difficult – we are experienced and can help you. Please contact us to learn how. – See more at: http://soldsense.com/2014/02/19/can-i-use-the-condo-docs-to-cancel-my-contract-in-virginia/#sthash.yCIzqUWx.dpuf

About Are Andresen

Are Andresen is the broker-owner at Soldsense Realty LLC in Vienna, Virginia. Soldsense Realty is a small independent real estate brokerage specializing in helping clients buy, sell and lease real estate in Northern Virginia. He can be reached via email at are@soldsense.com

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